Three Star Painting

This review is for a painting job done in March 2016. I had hired Three Star Painting previously in 2015. His crew did a clean, thorough job last year. His company did a horrible painting job in 2016. The March 2016 painting project consisted of removal of orange peel paint, application of new paint in 2 bathrooms, and painting of the metal stairway banister and entry door. I asked the owner of the company, Marty, to bring back his original crew. Marty said he would bring his employees that weren’t his original crew but were employees of his. On the first day of work, the crew arrived late, was sloppy, got different color paint splashes on the clean walls that were not supposed to be painted, on the newly refaced cabinets, new kohler toilets, valves, etc. The corners, the bottom of wall where wall met the moulding were not smooth, there were gaps that looked that deep gouges. The stairway banister was sloppily painted with not enough coats of paint where the old paint showed through the new paint. The front entry door was also painted sloppily; so paint was not smooth and old paint showed through the new paint. We found out later in the day, hours after the painting project started that the paint project was subcontracted out. The crew mentioned that they did not work for Marty and that Marty contacted them for the paint project. I was not happy about the subcontract of my paint project. Marty subcontracted the paint project out without my permission. The project already started and if I stopped it there would be more delays. So I decided to continue with the current painting crew. Marty mentioned that my painting project would take 3-4 days. By day two of the painting project, Marty and the crew were rushing to get paid and leave. I had to repeatedly bring up areas that needed extra work. They addressed some of my initial concerns then went into their car and never came back. Unlike the other contractors that I had worked with in the past, they did not check their own work or ask me to check their work if I was fine with their work “ is this fine, are you happy with this,etc.” Marty and his crew kept rushing. I was not happy with their attitude, behavior of rushing, and quality of work. After they fixed some of the initial problem areas, the workers went into their car and didn’t come back. Marty repeatedly said that they were finished once the workers stayed in their car and wanted payment. I was not happy with the poor quality of the paint job and the lack of professionalism displayed by Marty and the crew but wrote out the payment check. I am not a picky person and have worked with many other contractors and did not have the kind of issues that I had with Marty and Three Star Painting. After they left, I checked more thoroughly and saw in the corners big gaps, unsmoothed areas, unpatched areas. There were big blotches of uneven smoothed areas. So I called and left message asking Marty to fix the other areas that needed extra work. Marty called back that night saying that he would come back to fix the issues, was booked up, and would get back to me. I called Marty and left messages over the next few days, but did not get a response. After 3-4 days of not hearing from Marty, I put a stop payment on the check. About a week or so later, only after he tried to cash the check and found out that there was a stop payment on the check, he calls me back angry and gives me attitude asking why there was a stop payment on the check, that it cost him money out of pocket for the returned check. I told Marty that he would be paid in full if the issues were addressed. I told him clearly that I did not want the subcontracted crew or any subcontracted crew to fix the painting issues. I asked him to bring workers that originally painted my home last year or at least crews that are on his payroll and work for his company. He said the original crew was injured and others he already sent out to other painting jobs. The second time Marty comes back to fix the painting issues with a worker, he assures me that the worker works for him. Marty leaves the worker to work and says that he’ll be back later. Hours later, when I offer the worker some water, I asked how long he has been working for Marty. The worker tells me that he doesn’t work for Marty. Marty lied again and SUBCONTRACTED OUT A SECOND TIME without my permission. I was fuming but decided to continue on. I thought that this time if things didn’t work out that I would just hire another painting company and not deal with Marty and Three Star Painting Company any more. Fortunately, the second subcontractor did a much better job and was able to resolve and patch up 95% of the issues. Bottom line: Don’t hire Three Star Painting Company and save your self heartache. Marty and Three Star Painting Company’s performance is poor and not as good as it used to be. Marty subcontracted out twice without my consent, lied multiple times, poor quality of work, a lot of attitude and headache of having him come back to fix the issues, no compensation or apology offered for the problems he caused, lack of professionalism displayed by Marty. Other notes: When trying to schedule the painting project, Marty was adamant about him coming in to do orange peel removal in the middle of our current renovation of two bathroom showers, rather than coming at the end which painters usually do. He was adamant about coming during the middle of the renovation because he did not want to have to move the toilets in order to paint behind the toilets. Other painters remove the toilets themselves or hire a plumber to and after the painting would put the toilets back in. Marty was adamant about coming while the toilets were removed by the other contractor, have Three Star Painting Company do the painting, and then have the other contractor put the toilets back. I did not let Marty come during the middle of the renovation which was already hectic enough as it was. The way Marty handled my painting project, he would have caused much more headache and delayed my renovation if I had let him come during the middle of my renovation. Most painters offer some options of paint colors. I wanted a white paint color for my front door and stairway banister. Marty picked a shade of white paint without showing me any white paint examples. It would have been better if he explained the different shades and what shade that would be the best one I was looking for/had in mind, asked me to pick the final white color and then he goes out and buys the paint.

Went well, got the project scheduled arrived on time, and completed it on the time frame. They were patient with the challenges of the people at the property.

The price was slightly high. At first, his responsiveness was an A then he went to an F and he went back to an A. I had to call him again and he hadn't returned calls for a couple of days. He calls me Sir all the time. He's very respectful and very careful about putting towels on the ladder so it wouldn't damage the stucco. He didn't damage any plants and any sprinklers. They were very cautious about my personal property. I would go back. He's better than some other painters. He did the job and they came unresponsive after that. He understood wood, paint, coatings and application. He's very good that way.

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This is the second time I used this vendor and will do so again. They actually did the work whole we were out of town and we have no complaints about the service. <br />

Very professional. On time. Very good quality at a very good price <br />

Good price relative to other bids.  Met schedule and showed up each day on time (or early!).  Thorough and conscientious work.  I would highly recommend. <br />

They did a great job. Will use them again for sure. <br />

3 Star Painting was super.  I needed the wood portions of my father's home painted in advance of anticipated El Nino weather in the Southern California region.  Marty walked the property with me and identified precisely what needed to be done.  He didn't attempt to upsell me.  He gave me a fast and very fair quote.  He and his team showed up on time, finished the work on schedule and was responsive throughout the entire process.  I will use him again in the future and am happy to recommend him. <br />

Went very, was done on time even with some things added to the job. <br />

unknown

unknown

Three Star Painting proposal was inline with the others and his estimated project duration of four days was precise.  A 3-man crew arrived at 8:15 am each day and worked until 4: pm.  The craftsmanship and attention-to-detail stood out for the entire project. Everything was masked off and properly prepped before final coats were applied. <br /> Extraordinary cleanup at the end of day four and all planters and furniture were returned to original locations. Great job guys! - Thanks  <br />

unknown

They left the area great and took a day to complete the job. It was fantastic. I will be using them in the next two weeks to paint another house.

This project could not have gone any smoother.  I contacted three highly rated painting contractors from Angie's List.  Three Star Painting was the last contractor I called but Marty was the first one to respond. He has extensive knowledgeable of Dunn Edwards products and assisted me in selecting final colors. His proposal was inline with the others and his estimated project duration of four days was precise.  A two-man crew arrived at 8:00 am each day and worked until 5:30 pm.  The craftsmanship and attention-to-detail stood out for the entire project. Everything was masked off and properly prepped before final coats were applied. <br /> Extraordinary cleanup at the end of day four and all planters and furniture were returned to original locations. Great job guys! - Thanks  <br /> <br />

unknown

Marty was very informative, gave us great recommendations on colors to choose and which would not go together. His team was very professional, accommodating to all of my requests. Very friendly, hard-working crew, all rooms were swept and cleaned at the end, immaculate. at the end, rooms looked like the rooms pictured in dunn-edwards catalogs. very happy, would hire them again. <br />

Arrived on time. Finished on schedule and left no mess to clean up.  Thanks for the recommendation. <br />

! <br />

unknown

I gave a B for punctuality only because the contractor was pretty late when providing the estimate. Other than that this job went extremely smoothly. This company's estimate was well under what I received from other company's (i.e., 60% of). The painting team was punctual, very courteous, and very clean. They did a great job of putting everything back the way it was found. I am very happy with the quality of the painting job. I have not found any mistakes or missing spots and my house looks great. I would absolutely recommend using this provider, and plan to do so myself when I paint the inside of my home. <br />

unknown

<p>Marty and his team were very professional and courteous.  Pricing was really good, work was done timely, and the job was completed to my satisfaction.  I will consider hiring Three Star Painting for future projects.</p> <br />

Painted full interior of house. They gave a very good estimate, arrived on time and finished and cleaned up on time. They did not try very hard to match specific paint samples I gave them. Nor did they do any prep work (smoothing rough spots or filling cracks, etc.) so I have a new paint job but all the old patches show right through. I would consider using them again only if in the agreement I specifically ask them to sand, patch, fill etc., every single spot on the walls.